WEATHER:
As I sit here at the computer on Sunday morning we actually have a nice breeze outside and there was no need to use the air conditioner last night! I am not sure if that is a good thing for the fishing or not, but it sure feels good. Since the rest of the week was hot and humid this is appreciated. Since I am fishing today I am not sure if I appreciate what it might be doing to the water! For the rest of the week we had partly cloudy skies in the late part of the week and sunny skies at the beginning, with our nighttime lows in the low 80's and the daytime highs in the mid to high 90's.

WATER:
The surface conditions on both sides of the Cape have been great with swells slight at 2-4 feet and water temperatures warm. On the Cortez side the water has been between 84 and 87 degrees and almost deep blue. On the Pacific side to the north of the 1,000 fathom line the temperature was below 82 degrees at the end of the week but had been 85 degrees earlier, and not quite as clean as on the Cortez side, but still a lot better than we had been having several weeks ago!

BAIT:
Caballito and Mullet were available at the normal $3 per bait and there were plenty of green Jacks if you wanted them.

FISHING:

BILLFISH:
There were more Blue Marlin caught this week than during any week so far this year, and a few of them were reported to be nice sized fish! The ones I know of personally were in the 150 to 300 pound range but I was told of several that would have been in the 500 pound class (didn't see them myself). Add in a decent bite on Striped Marlin (up to 4 per day per boat, for the lucky anglers) as well as a scattering of Sailfish and the fishing was good. Most of the Blue Marlin action occurred either due south or around the 95 spot while the Striped Marlin action happened a bit farther to the north on the Pacific side. Sailfish were scattered and were where you found them. That also held true for the other billfish species, but the areas listed above had a slightly higher hook-up ratio than other areas. We had one client this week that went solo and released three Striped Marlin during a trip, as well as keeping a 50 pound Wahoo and a few Tuna.

YELLOWFIN TUNA:
I didn't hear of any of the larger fish being caught this week, unlike last week, but there were many more of the football sized brought in. Most of the football sized fish were being caught in the blind, not associated with porpoise and almost anything small in blue/white or blue/silver did the trick. That may be because of the large numbers of flying fish out there. Boats that did find Dolphin feeding were able to get a few larger fish to 25 pounds, but I did not hear of any of the larger 50+ pound fish caught this week. I may not have talked to the right people because it does not seem right that there were no larger fish caught. Most of the fish have been found either due south or up toward the Golden Gate Bank.

DORADO:
I saw a lot of small Dorado being brought in this week, some of them couldn't have been more than three of four pounds, and that made me feel a bit sick, but there were plenty of larger fish to 12 pounds and a few that went to the 50 pound mark! Fishing close to the beach, within 1 mile or so resulted in more fish than going offshore, but the fish were larger the farther you went out. As usual, live bait dropped back behind a hooked fish often resulted in multiple hook-ups and finding anything floating in the water was like a blessing from the fish gods.

WAHOO:
I think there were more Wahoo caught this week than last week, and I know for sure that our clients did better. While only one of our guys got one to the boat, and it was a nice fish, several others had lures cut off, a few on the strike and a couple while the fish was along the side of the boat. The action was scattered as these were incidental fish.

INSHORE:
Good Amberjack fishing on fish to 50 pounds, a good bite by Grouper to 35 pounds made the inshore a good style to try, but the real news is that the Roosterfish have shown up in decent numbers. We had one client (Steve, you know who you are!) who released three Striped Marlin, got a 50 pound wahoo and some tuna on a cruiser and the day after that fished a Panga and got a 50 pound Roosterfish for some photos, then caught several nice Amberjack. We had another client who caught several Amberjack and then went offshore in the Panga and caught a Blue Marlin of about 190 pounds.

NOTES:
My music choice for the week was once again Adele, can't get enough of her voice! Here's wishing all the participants in the Bisbee East Cape Tournament the best of luck!

Until next week, tight lines!